Facebook beats Twitter and YouTube as marketers' top choice for campaigns

No wonder we see more companies on Facebook than on Twitter and YouTube.

Buddy Media, a social enterprise software, released key findings from a research study on how marketers are increasingly focusing on digital and social trends, spurred by rising social media usage in the region.

The survey, titled “State of Social Media Marketing in Asia Pacific,” focused on social media usage, adoption and trends among brands and agencies. Nearly half of the 125 respondents were senior management and C-level executives from brands and agency marketers.

Key findings include:

· Social spending will increase significantly in the next two years – By 2014, 20 percent of respondents expect to spend 15 to 25 percent of their total advertising budgets on social media, up from just under five per cent who do so today.

· Social media is not new to most brands and agencies in the region. Nearly 75 percent of respondents have had social marketing programs in place at their companies for more than one year.

· Social media resides in the marketing department – 88 percent of respondents said their marketing departments are largely responsible for social media, while 33 percent mentioned corporate communications.

· Facebook is the most utilized social network by marketers, followed by YouTube and Twitter – Almost 90 percent of respondents said they utilize Facebook for social marketing programs, followed by Twitter (66 percent) and YouTube (62 percent).

· Mobile is on the forefront for many brands and agencies – Over 80 percent of respondents consider mobile strategy important for social media marketing, while only 6.4 percent find mobile not important at all.

“The unprecedented growth of social media in Asia and elsewhere in the world is changing the way marketers use content and connections to power conversations,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO and co-founder of Buddy Media, “Brands understand what social media can bring to the table, from generating user engagement to loyalty, to sales. To thrive in a highly competitive market, brands need to fully utilise the power of social connections to drive business growth.”

“The fact that 75% of brands and agencies have executed social marketing programs over the last year shows marketers are taking social very seriously,” said Ken Mandel, Managing Director of Buddy Media Asia Pacific. “Our findings also show that brands and agencies recognise the significance of mobile, as nearly 25 percent of them have a social media strategy for mobile in place, and half of them plan to do so in the near future. We are seeing tremendous progress of social marketing efforts in the region and are very excited to share best practices moving forward.”